ee4ac44 removed the api_data volume, which left the panel's Settings ->
PocketBase and Settings -> Web App screens with nowhere to persist to: they
apply at runtime and the container environment wins again on restart. That
is only acceptable if the environment is actually reachable by an operator,
and for two of those keys it was not - WEBAPP_URL was hardcoded in all four
compose files, and POCKETBASE_URL in the two multi-container ones, so
there was no supported way to change them at all.
Both are now ${VAR:-default} with the previous hardcoded value as the
default, so nothing moves for an existing .env while the keys become
settable. CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS and the admin credentials already were.
The env examples grow a section naming every setting the panel can also
change, saying plainly that the panel's version lasts only for the life of
the container, and giving the commented-out line to make it stick. It also
records the trap in WEBAPP_URL: it is a container-to-container call, so it
has to be reachable from the API Server rather than from a browser, which
is why the default is a service name and not localhost. POCKETBASE_URL is
described as repointable in the multi-container stack and left alone in the
AIO image, where it addresses that container's own PocketBase.
Also dropped two leftovers from when there were two volumes: the storage
sections still said "either".
Checked by parsing all five compose files and asserting each interpolation
default matches the value it replaced, so this cannot have moved a default
by accident. go build and go test ./... still pass (untouched here). Not
verified: no Docker CLI, so no `docker compose config` render and no build.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
DriverVault — Docker (multi-container stack)
Three containers — PocketBase, API Server, Web App — on one compose
network. This is the deployment to use unless you specifically want everything
in a single image; for that see ../Docker-AIO.
Browser ─► Web App BFF (:8090) ──/api/*──► API Server (:8080) ─► PocketBase (:8070)
Only the Web App port is meant to be public. The API Server and the PocketBase
admin UI are published for convenience and, in the prod file, bound to
127.0.0.1 by default.
| File | Use |
|---|---|
docker-compose.yml |
builds from source in this repo — for development and local testing |
docker-compose.prod.yml |
pulls prebuilt images from the registry — for deployment |
.env.example / .env.prod.example |
copy to .env for the matching compose file |
pocketbase/ |
the PocketBase image (official release binary on alpine) |
Run it
cd Docker
cp .env.example .env # then edit — PB_ADMIN_* have no safe defaults
docker compose up -d --build
Production, from the registry:
cp .env.prod.example .env # then edit
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d
Then: web app on http://host:8090/, the API Server's superadmin panel on
http://host:8080/, PocketBase admin on http://host:8070/_/.
First boot
Both steps are idempotent, so restarts and upgrades are safe:
- PocketBase upserts its superuser from
PB_ADMIN_EMAIL/PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD. This is the only way to create the first superuser — the REST API cannot bootstrap it. The API Server then authenticates with the same credentials. - The API Server creates any missing collections and reconciles existing
ones, then creates the first app
superadminfromDRIVERVAULT_SUPERADMIN_EMAIL/_PASSWORDif no such user exists.
Leave
PB_BOOTSTRAPattrue, including across upgrades. A release can add collections or fields the server needs, and a stack that skipped the bootstrap never gets them. The API Server self-heals exactly one thing —app_settings, the collection holding the plugin settings, which it creates on demand because it cannot serve the plugin panel without it. Every other schema change still depends on this flag, so turn it off only for a database you know already matches the release you are running.
No manual setup-pocketbase.mjs step is needed here — the server runs the same
schema reconcile itself.
Volumes
| Volume | Holds |
|---|---|
pb_data |
the PocketBase SQLite database and uploaded files — everything that persists |
One volume, because the API Server keeps no state on disk. Plugin enable-state
and global config live in the database like the rest of the settings, so backing
up pb_data backs up the whole stack. It defaults to a Docker-managed named
volume; set PB_DATA to an absolute host path in the prod file for a bind mount
instead. PocketBase runs as root, so a root-owned host directory is fine.
One thing does not persist: the API Server panel's Settings → PocketBase and Settings → Web App screens apply immediately but only for the life of the container. Set
POCKETBASE_URL,PB_ADMIN_EMAIL/PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD,WEBAPP_URLandCORS_ALLOW_ORIGINSin.envto change them permanently — in this stack the compose environment wins over anything the panel writes.
Charger control (OCPP)
Chargers in own/proxy mode dial in to /ocpp/{serial} on the API Server
port, authenticating with a per-charger control token in an OCPP Basic-auth
header. A plaintext ws:// would put that token on the wire in the clear, so
OCPP_REQUIRE_TLS defaults to true and non-TLS connections are rejected.
This stack serves plain HTTP, so to actually use charger control you need to
terminate TLS in a reverse proxy in front of it and set OCPP_PUBLIC_URL to the
public wss:// base (behind a proxy, deriving it from request headers is
unreliable). OCPP_REQUIRE_TLS=false is for trusted networks only. You will
also need API_BIND set so the proxy can reach the port.
Notes
docker-compose.ymlbuilds the API Server and Web App from../API Serverand../Web App, so run it from this directory with the repo checked out.- The Web App's Vue bundle is built with an empty
VITE_API_BASE, so the browser uses same-origin/apiand the BFF proxies it — no CORS in play. CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINStherefore only matters if a browser calls the API Server directly. Native mobile apps are not subject to CORS at all.